Rupert Murdoch comes over as all cuddly and a sort of vague neo-liberal in the Vanity Fair teaser for Michael Wolff's forthcoming biography, The Man Who Owns the News. But painting a somewhat sympathetic portrait of the world's most powerful media mogul has generated a largely critical response.

Differing reports of the article not only show the varied perspectives (and prejudices) of the reporters (and their bosses). They also illustrate just how newsworthy every utterance from Murdoch has become. The king-maker may not say much, but every word is assessed as if it is holy scripture.

In fact, of course, the only red face will by Murdoch's own rather than his company's. Among the (alleged) embarrassments, aside from the hair dye, is Murdoch's growing liberalism, thanks to his wife, Wendi; his growing distance from Fox News, its boss Roger Ailes and presenter Bill O'Reilly; his preference for Barack Obama rather than Hillary Clintonbecause he'll sell more papers; his belief that Muslims are genetically inferior because cousins marry; his inability to look at pregnant women; his refusal to accept his mother's advice when divorcing his second wife, Anna.

I think the Muslim crack may well come back to haunt Murdoch. So that could be embarrassing in business terms. As for the rest, I'd guess he will smile ruefully. No News Corp staffer is going to breeze into his office and suggest that he might tone down the aubergine a little.

But there was at least one tart remark on the Wolff article. The US-based Center for Citizen Media thought it "worth reading both as an exercise in vanity [by Wolff] and as yet another 1.5-dimensional view of a thoroughly amoral media baron. Murdoch comes across - nothing new here - as an essentially shark-like figure: a predator that can't stop chasing prey because that's what predators do."

Of course, Mr Vijayan and his comrades had not had the chance to read Vanity Fair before that statement was issued. Doubtless they will be reassured - as we are too - that Murdoch has become a liberal.